Cheap Home Automation System with Ninja Blocks

Home Automation is an idea that has been around for quite some time. According to Progressive Automations, it is one that has been used by some of the most affluent in the society relative to the price and the technicalities involved. Ideally, it has been for people that have a lot more to spare for their Security requirements. As such, Home Automation System have always been considered to be quite expensive. In most of the cases, home automation systems also tend to be quite complex to install and even operate. However, there is a solution for both the home automation being both expensive and complicated and comes in the form of a $200 dollar called the Ninja Blocks. This is a system that not only makes the installation cheap, but it can be set up in under ten minutes. That is a record time considering the amount of time it takes to have other systems running.

One of the aspects that is indicative of the quality of the system is the fact that the ninja blocks are also open source. This means that they are thoroughly refined by teams of experts across the world and promise the same cut throat quality over the future. With the ninja blocks the users are able to connect their sensors and quite a number of other peripherals to the system and get them working in no time. The flexibility of the system is also appealing, given that persons that have Belkin WeMo can also use connect them to the ninja blocks and get them working. What is more is that, even users that have previously been using the Arduino, Raspberry or even the BeagleBone systems, can also get the ninja blocks and get them working for their varied needs. This level of flexibility that is not common on most of the other system. Using the ninja blocks users can be in a position to control and monitor their temperature sensors, lighting, webcams and motion sensors among others. The only requirement for the sensors and the peripherals is that they have or can connect to RF, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals.

The $199 dollar kit comes with quite a number of parts that include the wireless motion sensor, one wireless door/window contact sensor, one wireless button, one wireless temperature and humidity sensor, one ninja block, one Ethernet cable, one 5VDC 3 Amp power supply and a temperature probe. Given that the hardware is open source, users with the knowhow can also come up with their own kits. This is to mean that, users that have previously experimented with Raspberry Pi, can just get the $49 dollars kit called the Ninja Pi Crust, which then adds to the ninja block functionality that is tuned to the users’ needs. Given that the system is open source, users are able to make their own sensors as well, where they can make use of the open sources Software and schematics.

To setup the ninja blocks, one needs to note the serial number after opening the box, after which the block is plugged to the power source and the internet and booted. The user is then supposed to login to the a.ninja.is/you using their email and password. Under the settings profile, they should then pair the block from the website after which they type in the serial number. To complete the setup, they should the click, setup Wi-Fi, and then enter the local network and password.

This is then followed by the sensors connection and specifically the four sensors that come with the kit. Ideally all the user has to do is make sure that the sensors have batteries installed after which they can place them around the house and then rename them on the dashboard user interface. On the rules tab, the user can then formulate the rules that define what sensors do given the variance in inputs. The last step involves getting the mobile app, that allows the users to control and monitor the various sensors in the house from anywhere in the world as far as they have internet connection.

Cheap Home Automation System with Ninja Blocks
Reviewed by Brian Williams
on
6/02/2016
Rating: 5